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Posted: April 27, 2007

Is IBM using nanosoup for chip production?

A story on the c/net blog refers to an invitation IBM has set up with reporters for next week to discuss a technique that moves it closer to the goal of self-assembly. On May 3, researchers will provide some details on what IBM says is a commercially practical technique for applying an insulating layer through chips using self-assembly.

c/net specualtes that the IBM process will be similar to a process used by Cambrio Technologies. The company "has come up with a microorganism that lets chip makers add an insulating layer of cobalt into semiconductors by simply dipping the wafer into solutions. One end of the organism attaches to copper and the other to cobalt. By dipping a wafer etched with copper circuits into a vat of the microbes, and then dipping it into a solution containing cobalt, the layer is applied.

'It's a high-value, low-volume soup,' is how Hash Pakbaz, vice president of development, has described the process. Cambrios is working with chip companies to get the technology integrated into chip manufacturing by around 2010."